Important Notice

Ram Kumar has returned to the medium of pen and ink repeatedly, exploring possibilities by confining himself to the monochrome of a fine nib. While many of his works, often recreated with large swatches of colour, arouse specific impressions of places and people, his pen drawings infused them with a restless energy that made them come alive. The pen, paradoxically, offered much through its restrictions. By varying the length and thickness of his... Ram Kumar has returned to the medium of pen and ink repeatedly, exploring possibilities by confining himself to the monochrome of a fine nib. While many of his works, often recreated with large swatches of colour, arouse specific impressions of places and people, his pen drawings infused them with a restless energy that made them come alive. The pen, paradoxically, offered much through its restrictions. By varying the length and thickness of his strokes, changing pressure and intensity, and interlinking lines and curves, he meticulously constructed figurative and abstract scenes. Some were sparse in detail. Others bustled with it.

From the 1960s onwards, he grew concerned with the essence of the inward. His trip to Benaras with Husain in 1960 triggered a need to express spiritual and introspective concerns. He discarded what could be seen on the outside. Though he leaned increasingly towards abstraction, some of his works bore figurative vestiges, such as the present lot. In (a) and (b), architecture is interspersed with topographical detail. His use of lines conjures an image of a village (a) and a place of worship (b). The verso of (c) appears to be a courtyard of a home in a village. Neat patches of intersecting lines form the door of the cottage, partly veiled by a makeshift roof held up by canes. The artist seems to have sketched the scene in the midst of an act. The recto shows an abundance of detail of a place. By leaving some spaces devoid of lines and others populated with them, he effectively recreates perspective and depth.

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